Christmas Cards

My Christmas cards this year were super fun to make!  They are also super hard to photograph!!  I used the Minc to foil my image and sentiment as well as the sentiment on the inside of the card (not pictured).  The dove image is foiled in gold and mounted on silver cardstock.  The Sentiment is also foiled in gold.  I used red foil for the sentiment on the inside.  When you can run about 9 at a time through the Minc is makes the process pretty fast!

Not only will my family and friends get one of these this year but so will my personal Young Living oil team members!  They have made my year full of fun and oily goodness!!

Be inspired for next year!!

I got my 12" Minc on sale this year for only $80......about half price!!!  I've been getting my foil supplies at a local company.  They ship all over the US so you can get from them too.  They are called www.mybinding.com and their foil is $26.62 for a 100' foll that is 6" wide.  An awesome deal!

Foiling info and something for your school

Have  any of you tried foiling with the new Minc? It is so much fun. But that foil is pretty expensive! I found a company out of Hillsboro Oregon that sells 100 foot rolls of foil (6" wide) at a really affordable price.  $26.62.  I just thought you might like to  know that.   Especially with Christmas coming up!

Now.......that company is giving away a laminator to the school of your choice!  Would t that be awesome for your school?  Here is the link to enter.  http://gvwy.io/3tgtpo0

And......don't forget to enter to get the car diffuser  I posted about last week!  See the previous post about that.

My two loves!

Love #1 - Most of you know that I love my cards...yes I do!  Crafting with friends and for my family are close to my heart and my craft area shows it!!  This card features a technique that makes it look like a quilt.  This image is one of my favorites...love those ruby slippers.  Halloween is coming up and that stamp (from Technique Junkies) would be perfect for some cards!  (think wicked witch).

Love #2 - Some of you may know that my second love is Essential Oils!!  So, I have a contest running over on my other blog and I would love it if you would enter!  The prize is the car diffuser shown below and a 5ml bottle of Stress Away.  Click HERE to go there and enter.  Instructions are on that page.  I don't sell any product on that blog but there IS a lot of info about essential oils!  I hope that you take a look around while you are there!  My passion for EO's started when I decided to be pro-active in eliminating chemicals from my life.  My morning routine has gone from 112 chemicals to almost zero!!!  If you have questions....I have answers!

Store is re-supplied!

When you are crafting there are times when you just need to cover a large area of your work surface!  I just restocked my Etsy store with my 42" x 24" Teflon Craft Sheets!  These are the same thickness and quality of other name brand Teflon Craft Sheets but mine are WAY bigger.  Even with the shipping cost....they are cheaper!!  If you wish, you may share this info with your friends!  The cost INCLUDING SHIPPING is only $35.  I ship quickly and priority!  Unfortunately, I can only ship within the US....no international because of the rise in shipping costs.

Here is the link to my ETSY LISTING.

Cindy's basket

My friend in Washington, Cindy Tschider, made these awesomely cute Easter Bunny baskets.  The moment I saw them, I knew I had to make some for my 5 grandkids.  I hope that they enjoy the little bunny bottoms!  Each basket has a chocolate bunny, Whopper eggs and some Jelly Belly jelly beans.  That and......Easter Grass!!  I'm quite glad that the Easter grass will be at their house and not mine!  I remember when my kids were little.  That grass seemed to pop up for weeks in the strangest places.  The feet were punched with oval Stampin Up punches.  The body was a Spellbinders die.  The Easter tag was made from SU punches.  I designed the carrots myself and cut them out with my Portrait machine.  The top of the carrot is a fern punch from Martha Stewart.  The French Fry box was cut on my Silhouette Portrait machine and was a file from their store.  The grass was also a cut file from the Silhouette store.  It is a little hard to see because there isn't a shadow under it but the bunny's tail is a cotton ball.  I cut the cotton balls in half to make them just a little smaller.  My friend's box didn't have a handle but I felt it needed it.

Last of the Easter cards

As I finished up my Easter cards (you can see the others on earlier posts), I had some Elizabeth Craft stickers that I wasn't as thrilled with.  They came in a pack with small ovals of Daffodils and Roses. The pansies weren't my favorite but once the card was done, I was pretty happy with it.   So, here I am WAY before Easter and my cards are not only done for my family but they are all already mailed and probably received.  It feels so good to be done early!

Continuing with Easter

Here are more of my Easter Cards.  If you missed the others, you can see the other two posts starting on March 14.  I normally don't send out Easter cards but I just felt like making some cards and I wanted to send Easter Blessings to my family!  This card will be going to my sweet mamma.  She loves Roses!

More Easter Cards

Here is the second Easter card that my friend and I made.  After she left I made more cards.  Then after I tallied up the number of people that I wanted to give Easter cards too and decided to make even more.

Hope you enjoy.  You can read the post from March 14 to read about the foiling process and how easy and fun it is.  The Elizabeth Craft glitter dots are so much fun to use.  I have a 'pen' that has sticky stuff in it.  I use it to 'pick' up the glitter dots and place them on the card.  I've done this with tweezers before and it was a royal pain.  Plus the problem of some of the glitter dots popping off where I couldn't find them.  Now all I have to do is find a good way to keep the dots straight on the card.  I'm not the greatest when it comes to that!

Easter is coming!

I had a chance to play with a friend last Friday.  It felt so good to have some crafting time.  It was even better that my craft room got cleaned up.  For a long time, it was a victim of "throw & go".  You know, no time to really put it away so you just throw it somewhere in the room and intend to return later to put it away.  Only 'later' never really comes.  Took a number of hours to make it nice and presentable but I'm so happy it got done!

We used Elizabeth Craft stickers and her glitter to create the lovely flowers for the cards.  They were colored in with copic markers.  It is such a fast and easy way to make a card look heavenly!   I have a new Minc laminator and am soooo pleased with it.  It is amazing and I love the foiling that it does.   The one thing that really impressed me is the warm up time for the unit.  My regular laminator that wasn't half as good would take around 5 minutes to heat up.  The Minc.......less than a minute!   I put the oval scallop die in my scanner and printed out the resulting scan with my laser printer.  I foiled the copy of the die then cut it out using the same die.  The result is a lovely foiled piece that you can see behind the colored sticker.

So, I'll be posting about a card a day to show you what I made this week.  I also did some Easter baskets for the grandkids and I'll post them as well.  Hope you enjoy!

Funny little Valentines!

Here are a few cards that I did for Valentine's day.  Some were cut files that I did for grandkids and a couple of business friends.  The other ones with Love on them were made for family.  I know that it is hard to see but the LOVE is foiled.  This was a foiling technique done by printing off the Love with a laser printer and running it through the Heidi Swapp Minc machine layered with the foil.  The results are soooo awesome.  My friend, Penny, brought her Minc over for us to play with.  Hey, I thought.  I have a laminator, I see how mine works.  Pfffftt!  The $20 Scotch laminator (with only 2 rollers) could do the job at all.  Getting rid of that puppy!  Ending up getting a 12" Minc on sale locally for only $80......wow!!!  Normal price was $150 and I got it for $80.  I was over the moon happy when the lady on the phone quoted me the sale price.  Happy dance.  Then, I need to remember NOT to take pictures with my ipad.  YUCK......that camera is NOT very good.  Regular camera would have been much better for me!    The cute emoji valentines and the Be Mine valentine files were from My Scrap Chick.

Yes, she crafts!

It feels like an age since I've made ANYTHING!!  With a new business going, it has been hard to find the time to just have some fun.  Here is a valentine card I made for my step-mom and my mother-in-law.  This is a cut file from Silhouette Design store (72826).  I think it looks so sweet.  My friend, Penny, and I got some play time today.  We also played with the Minc and some foiling.  So MUCH fun!  Guess what is on my wish list now!  Yup, a Minc.  We tried my laminating machine and it just didn't come close to adhering the foil.  Yup....a Minc is the way to go!

It's out!!! The new issue!

The newest issue of RSM is out!!  You know there aren't that many rubber stamp magazines out there anymore.  Support the ones that are left!  Here is a picture of the current cover.  ALSO, if you happened to miss it, look at my other posts that offered some of the RSM back issues.  Make me an offer!!

Stamper Samplers and Take Ten

I have 3 Take Tens and 8 Stamper Samplers for you!!   Most are 2006 and 2007.   $1 each ($11) plus postage of $13 in flat rate medium box.  $23 total!  Smoke free and cat free home!  First come, first served!    If you are local, I'll meet you to pickup.  Let me know if you are interested.  They are so full of inspiration.  I hate to see them go but I've enjoyed them so it is someone else's turn!.

Rubber Stamper Magazines Offer

Hey, Stamping Friends.  My bookshelf needs to be thinned out!  My thinning is your gain.  I have a total of 27 Rubber Stamper Magazines.  They will fit into a Medium Flat Rate shipping box which ships for $13.00.  I'm asking $1 for each magazine plus shipping.  That would make the total $40 including shipping for the lot, OBO!.  I'd really like to see them go to a good home.  Anyone?  We are a non-smoking, non cat home.  You can see the issue months and years in the bottom photo.  First come, first served.

I've been published!

It is always a thrill to find out that you will be published in a magazine.  Have you ever tried.  It really isn't that hard!  I hope that you enjoy the dragonfly card that was published in the special edition of RubberStampMadness called Stamping All Year Round.  It is 116 pages and just full of inspirational artwork for YOU!  You can order your own copy HERE.  Scroll to find the "New Book".  It will ask you if a blog referred you and you could put mine if you wish but I don't need to win a complimentary copy because I already have one!   You can see my card on Page 63.   Go there now!!